Container Gardens-Movable Instant Lush

There was a time when my gardening was relegated to container gardens. I had dozens of them… full of annuals of all colours and sizes. I had them everywhere…. On the deck, on the stairs, on the walkway and on the fence.

Sometimes our spaces are not very big or, they are so big, we are overwhelmed with where to start… well, start with container gardens….. pots of flowers, or herbs.

For new gardeners who are eager but not sure where to concentrate their eagerness, planting a few containers with colourful flowers is a great place to start.

Many of us have verandas or decks, and many of us have balconies and tiny front doors. No matter what our spaces are, we can make the most of them by dressing them up… giving them a bit of ‘glam’.

I used to think a container was a clay flowerpot… but imagine what you could plant in an old claw-foot bathtub – or an old rubber boot (even a pair of old rubber boots). A container is anything that will hold soil, and large enough for a plant to grow.

Haunt the yard and tag sales for something different…. Or your basement or attic…. Could be a basket, bucket or baby bath….

Think of containers as a moveable fest for your eyes……. From your front door to your back…. From the deck to the pathway…. From your balcony to your living room…. Think of colour – lots of colour.

Speaking of colour, now is a good time to talk about how to choose colours. The fun part of container gardens is how flexible you can be… how you can add zip to your spaces… or a sense of calm. Decide what feeling you want to evoke and then choose the flowers and colours that fit that idea or scheme. Remember your piece of paper (“plan?”)…. Jot down your favourite colours…. I like to use colours in my garden that I would not necessarily have in my home. Inside, I like calm and soothing colours and outside, I like to punch it up a few notches.

Reds and yellows are warm colours…. Even ‘hot’… they look festive and joyous… they are energetic and party-like…red and yellow are complimentary colours on the colour wheel, meaning they are opposite.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/floriculture/container-garden/lesson/colorwheel.html

Pinks, mauves and purples are calming and soothing…. All shades of the same colour.

Blues (violet, mauve, purple) and shades or fuchsia and pinks are called analogous colours and are beside each other on the wheel.

Of course, we could follow nature and have a mixture of colours… reds, yellows, purples all together… you could call that a ‘riot of colour’ because it looks like an artist spilled her paint box in your container garden.

The nicest thing about containers is that every year you can have a new colour scheme limited only by your imagination.

Containers can be placed at any level… think how easy that makes watering… have them at waist level, like your kitchen counter top…. Or hanging from a tree branch (Fuchsia is perfect for this as they love the shade… and hummingbirds can easily find shelter from the tree while feeding on those glorious colours.)

Container gardens don’t have to be just flowers… how about your own tomato plant – my Beautiful Daughter is new to gardening and has taken it on like dew to grass… and although I am a FLOWER gardener, she begged for her own tomato plant. Every day, she talks to it, checks it out for unwanted pests and every day it rewards her with larger tomatoes.

And 3 weeks later……

We will post a photo when they ripen… beefsteak, imagine… if we can do it, so can you… oh, and remember to plant some Basil at its base. (whether you say Bay-sil or Baa-sil…..) as it will ward off the wee bugs that eat the tomatoes… besides, tastes great with tomatoes, balsamic and feta…. Mmm.

Last summer my lovely-daughter-by-law (LDBL) (as we call her) spied a strawberry plant…. Ever bearing, meaning keeps producing strawberries.

Strawberries symbolize the beginning of Summer for us… The Anishnaabe native people believe the Strawberry gives them strength. “Ode’min” is Anishnaabe for strawberry from the root word ‘ode’ which means heart. They believe the strawberry represents the heart, and they get together for the ‘Ode’min Giizis’ which is ‘strawberry moon’ in the sixth moon of their calendar to celebrate its sweetness. It marks the beginning of Summer and the Summer Solstice. This symbolization of our one of our favourite fruits was reason enough for us to celebrate it too and plant one.

We have lots of black squirrels in our neighbourhood, so we decided to put the berry plant in a pot high on a table on the deck… indeed, the squirrel came by and managed to break a small branch. Incensed, we placed a large iron blackbird in the pot… Mr. Squirrel did not like the bird and knocked it out of the plant. We stubbornly put it back.

Father’s Day was coming soon and the biggest berry, we decided, would be perfect that Sunday morning for my Most Handsome Son (MHS)…. We watered it, talked to it and that morning, my LDBL went out to fetch the perfect berry for his breakfast… and Mr. Squirrel had taken a bite out of each and every one…. Including THE ONE for MHS …Next time we will buy our berries at the market.

Your containers can be larger than pots on your deck or porch… how about beautiful antique urns? Glorious for a more formal garden. Indeed, they will be too heavy to move around or to put on most decks, but they make a delightful addition to a garden path or terrace.

Now that you know what colours you like, what pots you want, how much sun or shade you have, you can choose your flowers. Most likely they will be annuals, especially in northern climates such as ours (Zone 5) where we have frosts and cold winters… we empty the pots, and store them until Spring. In warm climates, they can move indoors or to a more sheltered spot.

Sunny spots are great for geraniums, petunias, lobelia and sweet alyssum etc…. lots of choice for colour too. Shady spots will do well with impatiens, streptocarpella (mauve flowers in pot above) begonias and coleus, etc.

You will need a container with holes in the bottom, stones or Styrofoam peanuts for drainage or the roots will rot. Then the soil must be suitable for containers and Miracle Grow makes a good one that holds moisture if you cannot water regularly.

However, containers need more water than your gardens may need. Especially hanging plants … they seem to dry out daily. Don’t let them get dry to the point of wilting, you could lose the whole plant in a few days…. Even rainfall may not be enough… keep checking the soil.. stick you finger down about an inch… if it is dry underneath, it needs to be watered… wind dries them out too.

Stick your plants in the pot and fluff up the soil around them… fertilize as you plant and then once a week…. Nice Sunday early morning (or evening) task….

It will be messy as you plant, but take heart, the effort is worth it…. Most plants come from the greenhouse with flowers already blooming….

Yeee haw… instant lush !!

In a few weeks, it will look like this….

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